Country Players Who Play Tele w/o DR Amp?

[AlexArkansas]

Brad Paisley comes to mind easily, but I'm not sure I can name many others who haven't used a Deluxe Reverb prominently. Any others?

[Big John]

Albert Lee and his MusicMan amps, Ray Flacke with his Lab Series, Roy Nichols and on and on, when was the DR considered a 'country' amp ?

[Lee Harvey]

Don Rich.. Twin

[brbadg]

I was at the Opry a few months ago and didn't see a single Deluxe.Nothing but Twins!

[jh45gun]

Yea I would say I have seen more Twins on stages than Deluxe amps.

[Pajama]

Originally Posted by jh45gun

Yea I would say I have seen more Twins on stages than Deluxe amps.

Maybe Deluxe for studio but not stage?

PJ

[Sean65]

Originally Posted by AlexArkansas

Brad Paisley comes to mind easily, but I'm not sure I can name many others who haven't used a Deluxe Reverb prominently. Any others?

Isn't Brad an Vox AC30 man, but more recently Dr Z as he just keep his fragile AC30 for the studio?

[Scotty 2]

Originally Posted by Pajama

Maybe Deluxe for studio but not stage?

PJ

This is another one of those things that someone is trying to single out
as not being worthy of a particular place in it's usefullness.The DRRI is VERY
usefull for country,blues,old rock-n-roll or wherever you care to put it.And just like any other application,you can always mic it,And it DOES perform well on stage.
I know because That's where I use mine.This is not meant to be sarcastec,but
it is fact.Different amps will work for you anywhere,,if you know how to set
them up.Please don't judge an amps ability to work for you..There is a way to
make them work if you're willing to find that way.

[T Prior]

yes, when did the DR become the standard amp for Country pickers ?

I have been on bandstands for over 40 years., Telecasters, Steel > Country etc..I have never used a DR..it's been TWINS all the way.

The concerts I attended thru the years had Twins or Music Mans as the back line..NOT DR's...

This doesn't mean players are not using them in small clubs now, they are...but they are not the "standard" and have never been.

Had sound systems not evolved as they have over the past couple of decades, the DR would not have risen to any significance.

The era of amps, mid 60's thru the 80's..maybe even up to the early 90's..the DR was not a player....

..

[Scotty 2]

Who was the authority who set the standard for where certain amp should be used
at perticular places? I'll admit that certain amps may be better suited for certain uses
but they are CERTAINLY not the only ones that will work there.So stop telling me
the DRRI is not applicable for country on stage,,and tell me why you believe this.Just
because the Twin is bigger,doesn't mean it's the only one that will work.And just because
someone hasn't seen to many on stage only shows the Twin is maybe more prefered.

[WireLine]

Most of the guys out there I know use anything they can get in and out pretty fast, and gives em a good sound. Albert Lee uses whatever he wants, and still sounds like Albert, same with all the really great players. I did a couple shows with Rick McCrae few yrs back, and he was playing a stock tele through a Session 500, with a tone that would blow anyone off any stage.

Deluxes are great amps, so are Twins, Brunos, Matchless, hundreds of others...BUT its the players that make them great, not the other way around.

Yeesh

[Scotty 2]

My point exactly..I guess I just went through the
back door to say it.Kinda hard to understand me sometimes.

[WireLine]

Tony...you've been on stage for 40 yrs?

Dude, most of us take a break after about an hour... you must have a big bladder. <grin>

Scotty, I think your point was spot on. An amp, an effect, a pick, string gauge, etc - none of these are magic bullets...its the person holding the dadgum guitar that makes the magic. I really wish we all understood this better (self inclusive)... I should be able to do my job thru a POS Crate just as well as I do thru my current road rig or never-leaves-the-studio rig.

[jh45gun]

That is true I agree a good player can make most gear sound good and a bad player can take the best gear and sound not very good, but T Prior has a great point.

Thanks to great PA gear these days most any amp can be used if Miked but as he said until that happened small amps just did not cut it on stage. When I first started playing with some guys in High School we had a band that was three of us with no drummer playing country. I forget the amp I had but it was small one other guy had a BF Champ and the other one had a amp that was a Wards so a Valco I would guess. If we would have had a drummer then them amps would not have worked. When the guy with the champ and I started a new band that played Rock and Roll with a drummer and a bass player we got different amps I got a 68 Super Reverb for lead and rhythm and he used a SF Bassman for lead and rhythm. Bass Player had a two 15 bottom with JBLS and a Sano Head. No way would them small amps work. With most PA's back then in the very late 60's and the 70's being column speakers and a 100 watt heads with 4 channels no one could mic a amp the PA was used for singing only. I suspect that carried on into the 80's My band did not start into the large PA gear until the early 90s. I suspect a lot of local bands were in the same boat. So for them days gigging you needed a large amp. Even today a small amp some times cannot be heard onstage in the mix.

[Scotty 2]

I agree with you 45gun.If you'll read my #8 post you'll see where I talk
about micing the amps.My whole point was you can make them work.
We have the means to do that.And in so doing,,you can make the DRRI
stage worthy.That's all I was trying to say.

[jh45gun]

True now days you can, but it was not always so and that is what we are saying and since high powered amps were needed back then Twins ruled the stages or other high powered amps. Before some one says well back in the 40's and 50's they had lower powered amps and the got by they sure did. BUT remember back then lots of groups did not use drummers and bass players used stand up basses that were not amped. Back then was really no different than the 60's through the 80's into the 90's as T Prior and I have said. You had to use large enough amps on stage to do the job and back then PA systems were not used to mic amps they were used for vocals due to most places did not have huge mixers or large speakers. First large mixer and speaker system I seen was at a out door gig my band and about 30 others were playing. Mixer was the size of a large table and the speaker cabs on each side of the stage were about the size of pool tables. That was in the days of our band buying a new Kasino (KUSTOM) PA system and like most it was two columns and a 4 channel 100 watt head. Shure Vocal Masters were used then a lot too and they were pretty much the same thing as far as power goes but 6 channels. I have seen Pictures of Elvis with a Shure Vocal Master system in the back ground so even the pro's were limited to what many of us had back then. I think that large PA system I saw was pretty much an oddity then for most intents and purposes unless you had a lot of money involved in it. Lets face it even with the large outdoor concerts back then the Bands used the largest amps they could get to compete with the PA. So to the original question If any amp has been a standard for country I think it would have to be the Twin.

[jh45gun]

My post is not meant to bash Deluxes or any other smaller amp I have a MMB amp I really like but I gig with a Twin/Showman Variant a PA 100. Just because I know I can hear it on stage and I do not have to mess with miking it.

[WireLine]

Everyone seems correct. Amps were built as general purpose beasts, using the technology available at the time, and the needs as seen by the builders of the day. The Beatles played Shea Stadium with a couple of AC30s, because that's what they had, and what was available to them at the time. Nowadays, people don't play 300 seat bars without a 1000 watt PA and a 2500 watts total backline power. Amps used to have accordion inputs, because that's what was needed/wanted at the time.

Players adapted to what they had - manufacturing changes were kind of slow compared to today, which seems to be of the software update variety or makers throwing something out there and hoping the market finds a use for it. (AC30s were an evolutionary request from the Beatles, large Marshall cabs reportedly requested from Pete Townsend, Dual Showmans from Dick Dale, etc etc)

People just used what they had. In the end, no one in the audience cares.

[Brandon mac]

johnny hiland. has used twins,music man,now uses bolt amps.

[T Prior]

Originally Posted by WireLine

The Beatles played Shea Stadium with a couple of AC30s, because that's what they had, and what was available to them at the time.

WireLine DUDE...where ya been ? AC30's, man they left those back at the Cavern !

The entire large amp revolution began right around this point in time, perhaps just a year earlier..Poor sound system, large, really large audience, barely adequate 120 watt amps for this venue but this was it, top of the market...! Thomas made these amps specifically for the Beatles and kinda funny, they weren't made for the audience to hear at first but rather so the Beatles could hear themselves on stage over the screaming crowds.


I remember seeing many of the Uk bands touring with the big Vox amps ( AC100'S) but the sound systems were like 50 watt Bogan PA's !


The Beatles at Shea used these ...it looks like maybe 6, sound front and rear..note the absence of a BIG sound system, looks like a couple of Voice of the Theaters ( sort of ) on the sides...

and yeh, from my time as a very young teen seeing those UK bands tour with those big Vox amps I always wanted one,,and yes a few weeks back I finally acquired one...will I gig with it ? No.. , maybe once depending on the venue...I can tell you this, all my classic rock pals around town want to borrow it !